Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal that last summer’s riots in England provided a major impetus to Home Office research into new-generation riot control technology, ranging from the Dip to even more curious weaponry described by Cast technicians as “skunk oil”.

The briefing by Cast for the Police Service of Northern Ireland says that last year’s disorder sparked a surge of ideas to the Home Office from the public as well as companies manufacturing police technology. To capitalise on the interest, Cast convened a “brainstorming” event in October. Participants included police from London and Northern Ireland, the Police Federation, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) and the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

The November briefing, The Development of New Less Lethal Technologies, suggests that the Dips would be loaded into guns used to fire the existing generation of plastic bullets. They would be intended to be accurate at a range of up to 65 metres.

It is understood that the Dip, which was originally supposed to have been introduced in 2010, would be loaded with CS gas, pepper spray or another irritant.

Other parts of the briefing, released under the Freedom of Information Act, refer to a need in the short term by police to develop “counter laser dazzle” technology to protect officers from being dazzled by people using lasers like those used in recent Greek riots.

Large sections of the briefing were redacted by the Home Office, which designated them as “commercially sensitive”. However, the Guardian understands that the “less lethal” technology discussed included heat rays and sound weapons. One weapon that particularly interested police officers was something Cast technicians referred to as “skunk oil”.

The system would involve pellets containing foul-smelling liquids being fired from weapons similar to paintball guns. Such would be the smell that individuals hit by the pellets would want to go home to change their clothes, while associates would be reluctant to stay close to them.

The Guardian has also obtained figures illustrating the extent of recent spending by police forces around the country on the existing generation of plastic bullets, now referred to as attenuating energy projectiles (AEPs).

Some forces appear to have decided to considerably boost their stocks. Leicestershire constabulary spent £19,630 buying AEPs in 2010-11, doubling its spending on the previous year. So far in 2011-12 it has spent more than £10,000. Even a relatively small force, Avon and Somerset, which faced serious disorder in Bristol last year during the English riots and on a previous occasion amid anger over a controversial Tesco store, has spent more than £70,000 in the last three years. It also currently possesses 28 AEP launchers. That is 16 more than the larger West Midlands police, which still nevertheless spend more than £53,000 stocking up on AEPs in the last three years.

Gloucestershire police, whose territory was the scene of one of the more surprising outbreaks of rioting last summer, decided to considerably boost its AEP stocks last year. It spent £32,060 doing so, more than double its combined spending in 2009 and 2010. Elsewhere, Greater Manchester said it had sufficient supplies last year after spending more than £76,000 in the previous two years, while Nottinghamshire has spent £74,000 in the past three years.

A number of forces, including Merseyside and West Yorkshire, declined to provide information. Merseyside used the Home Office’s claim that terrorism remains a “substantial” threat as a reason for not providing the information.

Another freedom of information request from the Guardian found that the Home Office supplied £4.4m worth of AEPs between 2007 and March last year to police forces across England and Wales. The projectiles are supplied to the Home Office by the Ministry of Defence for police use.

While the Home Office invoiced forces for £700,000 worth in 2007-08, this rose to £1.2m in each of the following years and to £1.3m in 2010-11.

Subscribe to Latest Posts

Follow Us

Like Us

Most Popular Posts

Recent Posts

China Rolls Out Humanless Factory
The gravest fear that has rippled through humanity from the technology industry is that, someday, almost all of our jobs will be replaced by robots.
While that fear is often laughed ...

U.S. Removes 3 Nations from Blacklist
The United States has removed Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia from its blacklist of countries engaged in human trafficking.
The change in status was revealed Monday by the Department of State. ...

Gang of Cops Attack in Brooklyn (Video)
Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY — Unfortunately, the sad reality is that yet another accusation of excessive force by the NYPD is hardly newsworthy anymore. But there was something different about what ...

Journalists Under Criminal Probe for Snowden Leaks
A secretive British police investigation focusing on journalists working with Edward Snowden’s leaked documents remains ongoing two years after it was quietly launched, The Intercept can reveal.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service has ...

Jihadi John Now Also on Run From ISIS
Mohammed Emwazi, who is believed to be the killer Jihadi John in several beheading videos released online by the Islamic State group, may have worn out his welcome with the terrorist ...

Immediate Tsunami Risk in Caribbean
The Kick 'em Jenny submarine volcano near the island of Grenada may erupt within hours and could pose a tsunami threat for countries in the Caribbean, the Pacific Tsunami Warning ...

Humanity: Plausible Roads to Extinction
What are the greatest global threats to humanity? Are we on the verge of our own unexpected extinction?
An international team of scientists, mathematicians and philosophers at Oxford University's Future of ...

Analysts Voice Major Concern Over Oil
Morgan Stanley has been pretty pessimistic about oil prices in 2015, drawing comparisons to the some of the worst oil slumps of the past three decades. The current downturn could ...

Documents Allegedly Prove MI5 Pedophile Coverup
Britain’s MI5 security service covered up for pedophile members of the UK government under then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to avoid political embarrassment, local media reported Thursday, citing a recently ...

The WiFi Network Hacking Drone
Leaked emails between Italian spyware vendor Hacking Team and Boeing subsidiary Insitu revealed that drones carrying malware to infect targeted computers via Wi-Fi by flying over their proximity is close ...